3 Come as the fire! and purge our hearts
Like sacrificial flame;
Let our whole soul an offering be
To our Redeemer's name.
4 Come as the dew! and sweetly bless
This consecrated hour;
May barrenness rejoice to own
Thy fertilizing power.
5 Come as the dove! and spread thy wings,
The wings of peaceful love;
And let thy church on earth become
Blest as the church above.
6 Come as the wind, with rushing sound
And Pentecostal grace!
That all of woman born may see
The glory of thy face.
7 Spirit divine! attend our prayers,
Make a lost world thy home;
Descend with all thy gracious powers,
O come, great Spirit, come!.
(See also Hymns 85, 86, 161, 165, 351, 374-7, 508.)
PENITENTIAL HYMNS.
772 The Love of Christ the Sinner's Plea.
THOU who hast redeemed of old,
And bidd'st me of thy strength lay hold,
And be at peace with thee,
Help me thy benefits to own,
And hear me tell what thou hast done,
O dying Lamb, for me!
2 Out of myself for help I go,
Thy only love resolved to know,
Thy love my plea I make;
Give me thy love, 'tis all I claim;
Give, for the honour of thy name,
Give, for thy mercy's sake.
3 Canst thou deny that love to me?
Say, thou Incarnate Deity,
Thou Man of sorrows, say;
Thy glory why didst thou enshrine
In such a clod of earth as mine,
And wrap thee in my clay ?
4 Ancient of days, why didst thou come,
And stoop to a poor virgin's womb,
Contracted to a span?
Flesh of our flesh why wast thou made,
And humbly in a manger laid,
The new-born Son of man?
5 Love, only love, thy heart inclined,
And brought thee, Saviour of mankind,
Down from thy throne above;
Love made my God a man of grief,
Distressed thee sore for my relief:
O mystery of love!
6 Because thou lov'dst, and diedst for me,
Cause me, my Saviour, to love thee,
And gladly to resign
Whate'er I have, whate'er I am;
My life be all with thine the same,
And all thy death be mine.
Pleading with Christ for Salvation.
1 REGARDLESS now of things below,
Jesus, to thee my heart aspires,
Determined thee alone to know,
Author and end of my desires;
Ready to save I feel thee nigh,
And still I hear thy Spirit cry,
"My son, give me thy heart.”
2 Why do I not the call obey,
Cast my besetting sin away,
With every useless load?
Why cannot I this moment give
The heart thou waitest to receive,
And love my loving God?
3 My loving God, the hindrance show,
Which nature dreads, alas! to know,
And lingers to remove;
Stronger than sin, thy grace exert,
And seize, and change, and fill my heart
With all the powers of love.
4 Then shall I answer thy design,
No longer, Lord, my own, but thine;
Till all thy will be done,
Humbly I pass my trial here,
And ripe in holiness appear
With boldness at thy throne.
1 THE harvest of my joys is passed, THE
The summer of my comforts fled, Yet am I unredeemed at last,
And sink unsaved among the dead,
If on the margin of the grave
Thou canst not in a moment save.
2 Destroy me not by thy delay;
Delay is endless death to me!
But the last moment of my day
Is as a thousand years to thee:
Come, Jesus, while my head I bow,
And show me thy salvation now!
H! why am I left to complain
In gloomy despair of relief?
No end of oppression and pain,
No respite, or ease of my grief!
To soothe my incurable wound
No friendly physician I see;
No balm is in Gilead found,
No promise of mercy for me.
2 In vain for redemption I look ; My hope in a Saviour unknown, It passes away like a brook
Dried up in a moment and gone!
But God cannot finally fail;
The Fountain of life from above
Shall rise in the depth of the vale
Shall flow with a current of love.
"Ask, and it shall be given you."
1 THOU bidd'st me ask, and with the word Dost give the power to pray ;
I ask the mercy of my Lord
To take my sins away;
The sins with which I cannot part
I pray thee to remove,
And calm, and purify my heart
By thy forgiving love.
2 If my obduracy impede
The current of thy grace, If unlamented crimes forbid, And will not let thee bless;
The contrite sense, the grief divine,
Thou only canst bestow;
Strike this hard rocky heart of mine,
And let the waters flow.
3 Repentance, permanent and deep,
To thy poor suppliant give,
Indulge me at thy feet to weep,
When thou hast bid me live;
When thou record'st my sins no more,
O may I still lament,
A sinner, saved by grace, adore,
A pardoned penitent.
4 I ask not aught whereof to boast,
But let me feel applied
The blood that ransomed sinners lost,
And by thy cross abide;
Myself the chief of sinners know,
Till all my griefs are past;
And of my gracious acts below,
Repentance be the last.
NCLEAN, of life and heart unclean, How shall I in his sight appear? Conscious of my inveterate sin
I blush and tremble to draw near; Yet, through the garment of his word, I humbly seek to touch my Lord.
2 Turn then, thou good Physician, turn, Thou source of unexhausted love, Sole Comforter of souls forlorn,
Who only canst my plague remove,
O cast a pitying look on me
Who dare not lift mine eyes to thee!
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